God answers prayers.
We, not one of us, are privy to His purpose and will. We follow Him blindly in faith that He is working all things for our good.
He promises to lead us through the valley, not around it. This means He is with us when we are with Him.
It is with a heavy heart that we tell you that L is no longer living with us.
There has been much sadness, anger, and crying over this decision, and it did not come lightly. We came to our decision after much talking and counseling about what was best for L and what was best for us.
We will miss him.
There is a family for him somewhere.
Our prayers are that his time with us left an impression on him that will grow. What a family is like. What putting God first is like. What being vulnerable is like.
The night before he left, Mike, not knowing he was leaving the next day, spent quite some time with him, one on one, talking with him about some of his struggles. Mike told him that Christ is the one true way. He told L that he needed to work on his relationship with Christ, to seek Him out in all things and ask himself "Is what I am about to do going to honor Christ?"
We both held and prayed over him at the kitchen table that night, not knowing that it was the last time we would get the chance. We prayed that he would open his heart to Christ's leadership and that God would make Himself so visible to L that he could not help but seek him out.
Looking back, we have questioned our faith in this matter. We have asked "Were we following God's will in this or our own desire?" After a lot of tears and prayer we believe we were. Mike, and others in our support network, suggested that God's purpose in this may not have been for him to be a permanent part of our family. That, perhaps, God's will for L in our life had been fulfilled.
We may never know.
But Mike has never prayed as fervently for and over someone as he did for L at the kitchen table that last night.
Please pray for L. And for healing for all of us.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
What A Month!!
Well, it has been a little over a month since our last post and it has been BUSY!
L started summer workouts with the high school football team and has really enjoyed getting to meet some of his new classmates. Along the way he has made some new friends.
The big thing, no, the HUGE thing we did was all five of us flew out to Denver for Kerri's sister's wedding. Stephanie married Dave. On top of a mountain. At sunset. It was beautiful.
Mike got to walk the mother of the bride to her seat and Kerri sang (Surprise!!) during the seating of the family and while the wedding party came in.
We flew into Denver International on a Wednesday. Our first mission was lunch at Sam's #3 in Glendale. If you ever go to Denver, you MUST eat there. It is a sort of a deli/Mexican/breakfast food place that gives HUGE portions for a VERY reasonable price. We ate there three times during the week we were there. (Thanks for the tip Michael!)
As we were leaving lunch and on our way to the hotel, an accident happened near the restaurant about a minute before we got to that intersection and emergency responders closed the road. Our GPS didn't really know what to do next and so, what should have been a 15 minute ride, took about an hour as we rode all over the place.
Ugh!
Thursday we went to Roxborough Canyon State Park just south of Denver. As the pictures show, it is a beautiful spot and we had a nice time walking the 2+ mile loop through the canyon.
This rock outcropping is called the Washington rock. Can you tell why? (Hint: take out a quarter)
Friday we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Gravesite in Golden, Colo. (pretty cool, actually) and then we took the highest paved road in North America to the top of Mount Evans at 14,100 feet. Mike, Kerri and L hiked the remaining 100 feet to the summit.
And, of course, the obligatory selfie...
During the 28 mile ride to the top, the temperature dropped about 40° from 76° to 39°. Add to that a steady wind of about 20 mph and the "feels like" temperature was about 29°. Wow!!
On Saturday we went to Winter Springs, Colo. and rode an alpine slide as many times as we could during the four hours we were there.
If you don't know, an alpine slide is a concrete half-pipe running down the side of a mountain. You get on a cart with no helmet or seat belt and just a brake and see how fast you can go down the mountain.
The slide in Winter Springs is the longest in Colorado and is over 3000 feet long and drops 610 feet along the way. The top speed for the season so far when we were there was 37 mph. Yes, that's you, in a cart, with no safety equipment, hurtling down a hill at 30+ mph.
Accidents happen. And they did.
We are pleased to announce that Mike and Sean were the only members of the family that did NOT bust it while going down the slide! The bruise on Kerri's arm nicely complemented the color of her dress for the wedding on Monday night.
The following Tuesday we went with family to the Denver Zoo. We are sure it is a nice place to go but by this time we were about worn out from our adventures.
When we got home we found that one of our kitties, the oldest (Hannah - 11) had disappeared and was, presumably, killed by a coyote. So, we now have two new kittens, Biscuit and Pepper.
To round out the month, L got braces yesterday!
Pray for us. We need it!! :o)
L started summer workouts with the high school football team and has really enjoyed getting to meet some of his new classmates. Along the way he has made some new friends.
The big thing, no, the HUGE thing we did was all five of us flew out to Denver for Kerri's sister's wedding. Stephanie married Dave. On top of a mountain. At sunset. It was beautiful.
Mike got to walk the mother of the bride to her seat and Kerri sang (Surprise!!) during the seating of the family and while the wedding party came in.
We flew into Denver International on a Wednesday. Our first mission was lunch at Sam's #3 in Glendale. If you ever go to Denver, you MUST eat there. It is a sort of a deli/Mexican/breakfast food place that gives HUGE portions for a VERY reasonable price. We ate there three times during the week we were there. (Thanks for the tip Michael!)
As we were leaving lunch and on our way to the hotel, an accident happened near the restaurant about a minute before we got to that intersection and emergency responders closed the road. Our GPS didn't really know what to do next and so, what should have been a 15 minute ride, took about an hour as we rode all over the place.
Ugh!
Thursday we went to Roxborough Canyon State Park just south of Denver. As the pictures show, it is a beautiful spot and we had a nice time walking the 2+ mile loop through the canyon.
This rock outcropping is called the Washington rock. Can you tell why? (Hint: take out a quarter)
Friday we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Gravesite in Golden, Colo. (pretty cool, actually) and then we took the highest paved road in North America to the top of Mount Evans at 14,100 feet. Mike, Kerri and L hiked the remaining 100 feet to the summit.
And, of course, the obligatory selfie...
During the 28 mile ride to the top, the temperature dropped about 40° from 76° to 39°. Add to that a steady wind of about 20 mph and the "feels like" temperature was about 29°. Wow!!
On Saturday we went to Winter Springs, Colo. and rode an alpine slide as many times as we could during the four hours we were there.
If you don't know, an alpine slide is a concrete half-pipe running down the side of a mountain. You get on a cart with no helmet or seat belt and just a brake and see how fast you can go down the mountain.
The slide in Winter Springs is the longest in Colorado and is over 3000 feet long and drops 610 feet along the way. The top speed for the season so far when we were there was 37 mph. Yes, that's you, in a cart, with no safety equipment, hurtling down a hill at 30+ mph.
Accidents happen. And they did.
We are pleased to announce that Mike and Sean were the only members of the family that did NOT bust it while going down the slide! The bruise on Kerri's arm nicely complemented the color of her dress for the wedding on Monday night.
The following Tuesday we went with family to the Denver Zoo. We are sure it is a nice place to go but by this time we were about worn out from our adventures.
When we got home we found that one of our kitties, the oldest (Hannah - 11) had disappeared and was, presumably, killed by a coyote. So, we now have two new kittens, Biscuit and Pepper.
To round out the month, L got braces yesterday!
Pray for us. We need it!! :o)
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